T20 World Cup 2022, Match 40: South Africa vs Netherlands - Talking points and Who Said What?

The Netherlands have turned the table around with a stunning win against South Africa at the Adelaide Oval and it is a victory for ages at Adelaide Oval in the T20 World Cup 2022. Although they were out of the equation for a spot in the playoffs before the game started, the Dutch side came out all guns firing from ball one and an inspired bowling effort took them home in the end to leave the Proteas in agony. Only rain gods could have possibly sent South Africa to the knockout stages then.  

Speaking about the game, the Netherlands posted 158 for 4 in their 20 overs after losing the toss on the back of Colin Ackermann and Scott Edwards’ excellent finish at the back end. Ackermann’s unbeaten 41 off 26 balls alongside contributions from Tom Cooper (35), Stephen Myburgh (37) and Max O Dowd helped the Dutch side considerably while posting the total. Anrich Nortje was the only bowler who looked on song for the Proteas side with the ball.  

In reply, South Africa could manage just 145 for 8 in their 20 overs after losing wickets at regular intervals. The Netherlands bowlers did a smart job by assessing the conditions and bowling with a plan which proved to be effective. Brandon Glover was once again impressive with 3 for 9 in his two overs spell and changed the course of the game. Here are the talking points from the game. 

Rain affects another World Cup hopes for South Africa  

No one expected, South Africa to suffer a loss against the Netherlands and the pressure of a must win encounter played a major part. Had the rain not affected the first game against Zimbabwe, they would have been on six points with a relative chance of going through to the semis despite losing to Pakistan and the Netherlands.  

Netherlands surge ahead in international cricket 

The Netherland with two wins in their last two games have moved to the fourth position in the points table ahead of Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Although they might not have a chance to go further in this T20 World Cup, the victories have helped their chances of qualification for the next T20 World Cup directly without playing the qualifiers.  

Player of the match, Colin Ackermann said: 

It feels fantastic, really deserve this victory today, the boys have worked so hard for the last six months. That has been the theme of this World Cup. You got to earn the right to hit boundaries at the end. The surface was slower and we knew 160 was competitive, yeah it was a great performance. I need to speak to the skip about that actually (smiles) [on him not bowling much before this game in the tournament]. The South Africans had a few left-handers and the matchups worked well. 

Losing skipper, Temba Bavuma said: 

Very disappointing. We really played well before this game. We knew it was a must-win game and again we faltered when it mattered. Hard one to swallow for the guys. We had the confidence and the belief to get to the knockouts. You can pick out a lot of things when you lose that way. Firstly myself with the toss, winning the toss and bowling first. Wasn't ideal to let them off to a start and let them score 158. With the bat we just got stuck similar to the Pakistan game. We lost wickets at crucial times. The wicket maybe got a bit hard, but they used the dimensions of the ground a lot better than we did. From all us, just wasn't good enough. 

Winning skipper, Scott Edwards said: 

I am lost for words. Went so fast. This is going to take a bit of time to take it all in. We are used to these conditions in Netherlands. We were confident around the 160 mark to defend this. Another great experience, another big upset from the Netherlands. Absolute goal for us after losing the first two games that we are still playing for a spot in the next World Cup. Two results go our way and we are straight through for the next World Cup.